PT Shell Indonesia presents Shell LiveWIRE “Business Start-Up Awards (BSA) 2012” to 10 start-up entrepreneurs, selected from 398 participants this year. The winners are young and innovative and displayed creativity in utilizing advanced technology while remaining socially-conscious in their business development efforts.

They were selected from a pool of 398 young contenders aged between 18-32, who have developed businesses located in Greater Jakarta area, West Java, Central Java, East Java, and Bali.

The participants’ businesses are widely varied from culinary, fashion, and information technology-based to agriculture. However, the culinary industry still dominated, with many entries. Rinanda Halfi Muhamad the winner of a BSA 2012 award from Bandung, West Java, for instance, refines kluwek, Indonesian original black fruit for his burger’s bread dough labelled “Blackburger.” Another one is Muhammad Ilham, a winner from Bandung who offers a premium dessert, with his trifle-in-a-cup concept through “Stereo Desserts” label. His products have variation in taste and are distributed in several locations in Bandung.

More young entrepreneurs are also dabbling in information technology-based businesses as well. Agus Mulyana, for example, created his “Lo-Tech”, a robotic education device for elementary school to senior high school level, from scrap. Chrisna Aditya developed his “Coollab”, an interactive digital game which can be played on a multitouch tablet and mobile devices like smartphones. Bayu Sulistyo Subyantoro through his “Hicca Animation Studios”, created Uwa, Mica and Pito characters inspired from endangered Indonesian species.

We are pleased to see that more and more Indonesian youth are honing their entrepreneurial skills, and I believe they hold great potential to to become strong entrepreneurs in the future. With a little support and coaching, they will go far. The quality of submissions is encouraging and crucial as our young people will be Indonesia’s economic backbone in the future,” said Darwin Silalahi President Director and Country Chairman PT Shell Indonesia.

He added that the growth of young entrepreneurs is essential to build national economic resilience in facing the global free trade era in 2015. The contribution of micro-scale businesses in the rebuilding of Indonesia’s economy after crisis is apparent. With the Shell LiveWIRE programme, Shell is able to contribute towards the nation’s drive in sustaining economic stability, by promoting entrepreneurship and motivating young innovative people to reach their full potential.

Shell LiveWIRE Business Start-Up Awards’ judging criteria emphasizes on several aspects such as : Entrepreneurship, Business Situation and Future Planning. For Entrepreneurship, the indicators include: business ideas, innovation, as well as personal purpose and motivation. Meanwhile, indicators for business acumen include: operational performance such as efficiency, sales and marketing, finance, human resources, technology and intellectual rights. Judges also evaluate their future planning through indicators such as long-term objectives, strategic planning and opportunity for business development.

The 10 winners of Shell LiveWIRE BSA 2012 receive a prize money Rp.20 million each. In addition to that, winners will receive business coaching and mentoring support, business consultation and media publications to fuel their further growth.

Notes to Editor

About Shell LiveWire

Until today, as part of Shell International social program, Shell LiveWIRE has been applied in more than 18 countries and has helped developing more than 2,800 start-up businesses, while at the same time creating work for over 8,900 people. Since first initiated in Scotland in 1982, the program has contributed to the lives of more than 1.3 million young people – developing ideas and businesses through the dissemination of information, advice and support.

In Indonesia, Shell LiveWIRE is one of Shellsocial investment flagship programs established since 2003. The objective of the program is to promote entrepreneurship among Indonesian youths, to help develop their businesses as well as to give recognition to their innovative and creative businesses in the annual Business Start-Up Awards. From 2003 to 2012, there have been more than 5,000 young people participating in Shell LiveWIRE workshops. Meanwhile, a total of 3,043 young entrepreneurs from Java and Bali have applied to join the Shell LiveWIRE Business Start-Up Awards since the competition first ran in 2006.